How did it come to this?
by Rrazz
Summary: "As James Raynor says, we are who we chose to be...But what if i chose wrong?" One commanders descsion cost him his only friends, the quesion is, was it worth it?  I suck at descriptions
1. What have i done?

_As anyone who's ready my previous story (One i'm still working on) Antaria's Last Message. You'll reconize both the name of the main character, and in turn the fact that this is a little rushed. Idea hit me, i jotted it down in less then an hour, figured i'd submit it and see if anyone liked it. There will be more, at least another chapter yet._

_Please read and Review/Comment. I'd like to know if anyone liked/didn't like this._

_Finally i'm well aware there's quite a few of fictions that have popped up recently that deal with this particular event, it's my hope that as this progresses, i can move away and make something unique. /fingers crossed _

_Without further delay, on with the fiction._

**How did it come to this?**

**Chapter one: What have I done?**

* * *

Jackson winced slightly as he studied the view screen sitting atop his command console. He hated this position. Thousands of miles above Tarsonis, he was safe and sound, nothing could harm him here.

Down on the surface however, he watched as dozens of his fellow Sons fought, bled, and died to hold the line against the protoss. How had it come to this? A few months ago he was the Magistrate of a small colony, he had a militia under his command sure, but they were all friends and people he knew, trusted.

Now though, eh watched as an entire squad of marines were butchered. A subtle twitch of his left eye being the only reaction. His time with the Sons of Korhal had desensitised him to death and violence. It used to make him wince to even hear a gunshot, now, as he surveyed the battle far below through his personal battle cruisers scanners, he simply shook his head and focused on the goal, not the price.

"Squad three, link up with Sergeant Jefferson and his platoon, they'll need support to take out those cannons." His voice, almost monotone and devoid of emotion, betrayed just how young he truly was. Being only twenty three, he was hardly old enough to old a rank like he had now.

Desperate times, or so he kept telling himself.

"Got it sir, moving out." Came the response from the squad's leader. He might not be there personally anymore. But he was still in charge. A gloved hand moved to rub his sky blue eyes, before he focused on one of the bridge officers. "Any word from the Hyperion yet?" Mengsk had been strangely quiet the past few hours; it was starting to get on his nerves.

"Nothing sir, all communications are coming from the surface." The comms officer replied, before turning back to his post. A long drawn out sigh left Jacksons lips. "Times like these I feel like I should start smoking." He muttered, before returning his attention to the screen. Unlike his friends, he refused to touch the cancer sticks. Sometimes he wondered if he was the only one that didn't smoke in the entire sector.

Pushing the thought aside, he noted the battle was beginning to go their way. Looking up from the screen, he noted the protoss ship that had been holding orbit, but Mengsk had refused to let them engage withdrawing and moving away from Tarsonis. "Looks like we won!" He said, a hint of joy creeping into his voice, finally things were wrapping up. Another job well do-

"This is Kerrigan, we've neutralized the protoss but there's a wave of zerg advancing on this position. We need immediate evac!" Damn it! He didn't pause for a moment, before anyone could even blink Jackson was shouting orders.

"Scramble the drop ships! Get them planet side on the double!" He snapped, causing several of the bridge crew to jump before leaping to their respective tasks. "Get us closer, I want them aboard and I want them aboard now!"

"Throughout all this, he'd failed to hear the order sweeping through the fleet, though when his communication officer saw fit to pull up the main screen. "Belay that order, were moving out." The commander froze, his gaze snapping around to focus on the screen.

Raynor spoke first however. "What? You're not just gonna leave her!" He felt his heart that was already beating rapidly, pick up speed.

"Helmsmen, take us out of orbit, and prepare to move away from Tarsonis on my mark." Jackson whipped around to find his bridge crew standing in place. "What the hell? GET THOSE SHIPS MOVING!" Rage was all he felt as a hand snapped down and drew the pistol holstered at his side and pulled it up into view, his thumb easily snapping the hammer back.

That got them going again, however a glance over his shoulder confirmed that the rest of the fleet was pulling away. "Damn you Acturus. Don't do this!" Raynor's voice filled his ears again.

"It's done." He tuned out the rest of the argument. "Come on, come on!" Without thinking, he snapped his screen back to the fight below, the base, was gone, overrun with zerg, he could see a few soldiers here and there trying there best to hold the line, but they were swiftly torn apart.

"What's taking those blasted ships so long!" He snarled the temptation to start shooting to make the crew work faster building.

"Sir, even with an escort…The zerg forces are to vast, they'd be destroyed before they even reached New Gettysburg. There's nothing we can do…" His first officer said slowly, still very much aware of the pistol clenched tightly in his superior's hand.

A long, tense minute passed in silence. Before the breath Jackson had been holding finally left him in a long, slow sigh. "Recall the drop ships…Break orbit as soon as there docked." He said slowly, before simply turning around and storming out of the room, leaving the crew to follow orders without him.

* * *

An hour passed without anyone seeing the commander. A few of the crew speculated he'd put the gun to his own head in the end. Though everyone knew that was false, they knew he'd taken things badly, but if anything, he wasn't suicidal.

Sure enough, he eventually found his way to the Cantina and collapsed into a seat by the bar. "Something strong." He stated simply, causing the bartender to fix him with a confused stare, before he wandered off to fill the order. The only time anyone had seen him drink was when he'd been celebrating, and even then it was only something light to join in before he stuck to something non alcoholic.

When the glass was set in front of him, he simply dragged it closer and stared at the contents for a long moment. Before abruptly lifting it to his lips and downing the entire drink in one gulp. "You okay sir?" The bartender finally worked up the courage to ask.

"Fine, just fine." He received as a response. "Briefing in twenty minutes, needed something to steady my nerves." He stated, his voice once again monotone and devoid of even a shred of emotion.

Before anyone could ask anymore questions, he simply pushed himself away from the bar and vanished from the cantina entirely. His path slowly leading him through the neo-steel corridors to the bridge, where he'd get a damned explanation for all this.


	2. Bad Descision

_Can't help but feel thsi needed...More...Something...More time perhaps..." I don't know. But i will admit, writting at 5am is not a wise idea. I can't help but feel this didn't turn out right. But at the same time i felt it nessecery to post this ASAP due to the first chapter not really conveying what i had planned for the story._

_Please read and Review/Comment_

**How did it come to this?**

**Chapter 2: Bad Decisions**

* * *

Jackson sighed heavily as he listened to Mengsk and Raynor argue back and forth. Raynor throwing everything he could think of at Acturus and their current commander either throwing it back at Jim or simply finding new material to argue back with. He'd long stopped listening to them, instead just waiting to see the end result.

This came quite suddenly when Jim cut the line, Mengsk's screen simply fading to static. "Screw this." He heard Raynor grumble, before he snapped out of his thoughts, having been addressed directly. "I'm gone! And you'd better come with me, there's no telling who Acturus will screw over next."

Jackson hesitated for a moment, Jim was already making plans on how they could escape, and in turn was dragging him into this mess. He listened for a while, hearing plans to knock out a Ion cannon so they could escape without being shot down.

He listened for a while, before speaking up. "Is this really the best course of action." Both Raynor, and the Adjutent that had been helping them paused.

"What do you mean?" Jim asked, his stern gaze making the commander shudder very slightly, though he was quick to quell his anxiety and simply tried his best to hold firm.

"Think about it. Yes he's done some bad things, things we helped him do…I'm not proud of my part in all this. But we have accomplished what we aimed for, right?" He slowly shifted his hands behind his back, one hand clasping the other wrist as he spoke. "We joined the Sons, we overthrew the Confederacy, isn't that what we wanted?"

Raynor was silent for a long moment, before finally finding his voice once agin. "What are you saying?"

Jackson felt his jaw clench slightly, this was going to be harder then he thought "Think about it. We signed up for this, we signed up with the Sons of Korhal to overthrow the Confederacy. Sure we had to make sacrifices…A lot of them…" He shifted his gaze away from the screen to hide the brief flash of emotions. Focusing on his friends face once again eh continued as best he could.

"I'm not proud of things we had to do. Be it had to be d-"

'Listen to yourself! He left Kerrigan to die on Taronis! That could have been you, or me!" Jim snapped, causing Jackson to wince.

"I tried okay! I sent ships down there to save her! To save everyone!" He responded, his voice rising to match the ex-marshal's "I was to late, but damn it, you know as well as I do we had to do things we didn't want to. I left a lot of good people behind on Mar Sara when we evacuated. I would have gladly stayed behind if it meant an extra space on a drop ship to get them out. But there wasn't time! I tried to save Kerrigan, I did my damned best! But I wasn't fast enough!" A fish slammed into the console, causing the screen to flicker and several of the crew that had been trying there best not to show signs the were listening glance towards the commander, before hastily looking away.

"I know that could have been me. Next time it might have been. But see reason Jim, if we went down there, guns blazing and tried to save her, we'd all be dead!"

Raynor was silent for a long moment, before finally speaking, his voice was much quieter, almost defeated. "What are you sayin? That you're going to stay with that snake? After everything he's done you're still going to stay on his side?"

Jackson hesitated; doubt crept into his mind and expression. He was bitter about Kerrigan's death as well, but he knew that some times, you couldn't save everyone. "Raynor…You know as well as I do, that I don't agree with Mengsk…That I hate what he did, using Psi emmiters on Tarsonis…That was sick…Even I know that. But it got the job done…" He carefully dodged the question, hoping somehow, he could talk James out of this crazy plan.

"Are you with me…Or Mengsk?" Raynor demanded.

Jackson was silent once again, his emotions conflicted. On one hand, he knew what his friend said was true. On the other, he couldn't deny that, put in Acturus' shoes, he'd probably have done the same…

"We've come to far old friend…I can't walk away now…"

Jim stared at him for a long time, what felt like hours passed. Before he simply nodded. "When he dumps you on a planet full of zerg and leaves you to die. Don't come begging me for help." A second later, the screen snapped off, leaving Jackson with two static filled screens, and the Adjutent, who dissolved to static a second after.

Funny, even the AI wouldn't look him in the eye anymore.

His hand, still firmly planted into his command console, clenched tighter, before he withdrew it and closed the communication entirely. "Orders sir?" His gaze shifted to his first officer, who watched him cautiously. "Raynor's going for the Ion cannon…We should organize a defence and ensure he gets a traitors welcome…"

He spared the now black screen in front of him a glance, before shaking his head. "Recall the wraiths, give him twenty four hours. If he's still on the station. Then we'll hand him over."

God help him…What had he done?


	3. More Surprises

_Yeah, i'm still writting this, short chapter sadly_. _But it's setting up the next one, i hope. So hope you enjoy. A review would be nice but not essecery lol._

**How did it come to this?**

**Chapter three: More Surprises**

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* * *

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A groan escaped Jackson as consciousness slowly returned. How long had he been out? Shaking his head slightly, he pulled himself into a sitting position and blinked his eyes back into focus. "Status report?" He muttered, a hand moving to rub his temples in hopes of easing the headache.

"N-Nothing on our scanners sir…Looks like we lost them." His new first officer replied. Good, they'd lost the blasted cruiser, whoever it belonged to. "Get command on the line, main screen." Damned emergency jumps. Never could get used to them…

A few seconds later, he noted the main screen change from the view of empty space to static, and swiftly jumped back into his seat in a vain attempt to compose himself.

An adjutant soon formed out of the static, her bright green eyes falling on him. "Greetings commander." She said in the usual semi monotone.

"We just had to make a emergency warp jump. A rogue battle cruiser just tried to fry us…" He explained without pause. It made little sense for one of Raynor's ships to be out here alone.

"Stand by commander." The adjutant abruptly faded, replaced instead by a familiar face. "General!" Despite the headache, he still managed to jump to his feet and salute.

"At ease boy." General Duke growled, cheerful as ever Jackson noted. "We've been having problems with random attacks on installations and ships." He continued without giving the commander a chance to give any further details. "Seems like you're old pal Raynor is getting desperate."

Jackson felt his jaw clench very slightly. Ever since James had abandoned the Sons of Korhal, Duke had always held a strong distrust for him. Even now that they'd formed the Dominion, he still expected Jackson to betray them at the first possible convenience. "Maybe, not like he tells me anything." He responded carefully, making sure to keep his tone neutral. The General was known for taking even the slightest hint of anger as treason, and he was on thin enough ice as it was.

"Seems a bit…Unlike him though, wouldn't you say?" The commander continued, his hands crossing behind his back as he spoke. "He might be a rebel. But even he wasn't stupid enough to split his fleet up like this…" He half expected Duke to respond with another jab at his loyalty, instead the General simply nodded.

"True…" While the General was busy thinking over his words. The commander shifted his attention to his terminal. "We did manage to scan the ship prior to the jump. Uploading now." A few key presses later, the information was transferred.

"Were a bit beat up sir…Orders?"

"Whatever this is, we need all the ships we can get mobile. Report to the Dylarian Shipyards for repairs." Without waiting for a response, Duke's face vanished from the screen and was swiftly replaced by the stars once again.

"Cheerful as ever." Jackson muttered, before focusing on the crew. "You heard him. Punch in a course for the shipyards…I'll be in my quarters, trying to ease this damned headache."

"Warp jumps can do that sir." He heard his second, Alice say, a hint of pain in her own voice due to the jump.

"That was gone about two minutes ago…I was talking about the one I got from the General." He said with a slight smirk, before vanishing from the bridge.


End file.
